Tactics developed in times of economic crisis applied in design studios

Kirill Jedenov, Filipe Afonso

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference paperConference paperpeer-review

Abstract

Crisis: Turning point in a disease (for better or worse) - Hippocrates

Previous economic growth and the relatively low number of practicing professionals in Portugal allowed architects such as Álvaro Siza (2012) to work mainly through commissions made by government entities. According to Costa (2013), the international recognition of these architects led to an influx of students into architecture schools. Recent research (Caldeira, Santos and Ravara, 2013) shows that an excessive number of recently graduated architects together with the decline in the construction industry gave rise to high unemployment rates among Portuguese architects. Some of them, consciously or not, went looking for work in the fringes of the discipline. They are characterised by a multitude of attitudes working on transdisciplinary projects. They do not have any commissions, they reinvent sustainable models leading to self-built, ephemeral constructions, minimal interventions without design, self project financing or fund raising. They are networked, grouping and ungrouping quickly not only locally but worldwide. Architect designed political interventions appear on the streets. Some embrace social causes and others design only digital projects. If the architecture of the preceding generation was intended to last one hundred years or forever, now it is designed to last one week or never to be built allowing an increased design freedom. The building materials of the preceding generation were limited to stone, concrete, glass and wood. Now the range has been extended to plastic, earth, wax, mirrors, paper, live animals, ready-made and pixels. They ask themselves frequently what can we do with €500? Or what can we build in one week? They re-invent the meaning of the word architecture. Baptista (2010) suggests that this happens not because they don’t want to do the previous architecture, but because this is the only architecture they can do. The architect’s practice and education needs to change not only to suit challenging economic times but due to restrictions of our finite world: super populated, connected, fully explored and with increasing levels of consumption. Students sometimes have expectations to design through massive amounts of material and human labour. This is an issue which will become increasingly difficult to do.

Learning with the Portuguese example we are applying their tactics in Design Studios in Austria and Australia, countries not hit by monetary constraints. Instead of asking students to draw proposals on paper or models, we ask them to actually build something with a low budget in a short time. Not models but 1/1 finished products that, due to their resource scarcity, will achieve maximum impact on their audience. The evanescent character of these proposals allows great freedom in students’ designs.

We ask students:
• What can you build with 100€?
• If you do it in a group will it be better?
• What materials can you cut, sew, weld, assemble?
• What can you build in one week?
• Is it Architecture?

With this hands-on approach, students understand quickly that their actions (sketches/ ideas/proposals) have consequences (finished project/created atmosphere/audience perception), understanding the vertical connection between representation and a built project.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAAE 2016 Research Based Education
EditorsRobert Newcombe
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherThe Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Pages358-371
Number of pages14
Volume2
ISBN (Electronic)978-0-9929485-9-7
Publication statusPublished - 2016
EventAAE 2016 Research-Based Education Conference - The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London, United Kingdom
Duration: 7 Apr 20169 Apr 2016

Conference

ConferenceAAE 2016 Research-Based Education Conference
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityLondon
Period7/04/169/04/16

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